Iw Board Approves State Plan

Family Life Classes To Begin This Fall

June 09, 1989|By MARC TURPIN Staff Writer

ISLE OF WIGHT — The School Board decided Thursday to adopt the family life curriculum recommended by the state for kindergarten through 10th grade.

The county Community Involvement Team, appointed to help the school system prepare a sex education curriculum, had proposed in April that the board adopt a plan through 12th grade, but school officials believed a curriculum through the 10th grade would be easier to install. The state's objectives for the 11th and 12th grades will probably be taught at the 10th-grade level, according to Warren Winter, director of instruction for the school system.

School Superintendent Vito Morlino said the school system will now begin to select who will teach family life and should complete that process by next month. He said selections will be based on teachers' abilities to work with children and whether they are comfortable with the material.

Winter said those teachers will participate in workshops at several colleges beginning in July and August and the program should be under way in the school system "as soon as possible during the fall semester."

After the board's vote, Morlino credited the CIT for its role in helping the school system decide on a family life curriculum, adding "we do not expect to disband the CIT. We want to keep the communication between the school and parent. That's very, very important."

Localitites had the option of using the state's program or creating their own following state guidelines.

In the plan adopted by the board, some examples of topics that will be taught are third-graders identifying body parts associated with reproduction and elimination; fifth-graders being taught about human reproduction; seventh-graders becoming aware that sexual behavior comes from conscious decisions; and ninth-graders realizing the importance of postponing sexual behavior until marriage.

All four School Board members present voted for the K-10 plan. The fifth member, Richard Peerey, was absent.